The Steinbach Regional Secondary School improv teams kicked off their season on Monday evening by inviting alumni members to join them on stage.

Naomi Stobbe is the SRSS Drama Teacher and Co-Coach of the SRSS senior improv team. She says during an improv show, teams receive suggestions from the audience then do improvised theatre based on those suggestions. She notes they have been thinking of holding an alumni show for a few years and finally got around to it.

"The students who leave us and go on to do improv or not do improv are always talking about ‘Oh they want to come back and do an improv show’, so we decided it would be a nice season opener, give our kids a nice chance to see some old pros and also let our school know that we have started up the season."

Stobbe says the SRSS currently has a junior and senior team and both teams really enjoyed performing alongside alumni members. She notes the show was a delight.

"Our junior team, there is only one person who person who has been on stage doing improv before and she actually just stepped up to the plate and the rest of the newbies were just totally into it. They did really well and we also had a pretty fresh senior team but most surprisingly of all was the alumni who just got in there and entertained us thoroughly."

Stobbe says improvised theatre helps students grow and is great for community building and trust building.

"You get to belong to a team and those people who play sports understand all the good things that come from being on a team, the camaraderie, the support, the trust, all those kinds of things. Also, kids get to learn how to be confident on stage. They come out, they have no ideas, the ask-fors are given to them and they have to come up with a story on the spot."